Word: repairs
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...Reporters from the Wall Street Journal had a defective rotor installed in an otherwise perfect car and took the car to several Dallas auto repair shops. The one mechanic who fixed only the rotor charged $1. Six others made unnecessary repairs, one charging $54.60 for his services. Two other mechanics wanted the car left for even more expensive repairs, and one suggested a $130 valve...
These examples of auto repair swindles have a familiar ring to most Americans. They are typical of the many detailed by Attorney Donald A. Randall and Journalist Arthur P. Glickman in their new book The Great American Auto Repair Robbery, which will be published later this month by Charterhouse Books Inc. As the authors describe it, the auto repair industry is fraught with deceit at every level, from gas station attendants who surreptitiously puncture tires with a screwdriver to insurance estimators who take kickbacks from body shops to steer business their way. In a modern version of highway robbery...
Randall, especially, knows whereof he writes: he was director of a four-year investigation of the auto repair racket for the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly. In that position he discovered that auto mechanics are, as often as not, incompetent hacks. None of the 50 states requires that automobile mechanics be licensed, says Randall, although "persons engaged in less life-and-death-re-lated professions such as beauticians, barbers, and real estate agents generally must pass proficiency tests and be licensed in order to practice their trades...
...minimize the chances of being swindled, Randall and Glickman suggest that motorists carefully follow the routine maintenance procedures outlined in the owner's manuals; that should lessen the need for major repairs. If such repairs become necessary, owners should avoid the repair services operated by new car dealers and franchise specialty shops in favor of long-established independent garages and individual mechanics who have proven their reliability...
...delivering 120 new trailers a day, and is still far behind the demand. But the majority of Wilkes-Barre citizens hope one day to repair or rebuild their own houses. Many Wyoming Valley residents are of Polish and Slovak stock. Their hearts are in their homes; to possess a home is to possess everything. And they are the core of the movement to bring the valley back...